Advice for a Newbie

Think your room sounds nice, and all I can saw is good luck.

Where is your room at? What is it called? Got any pictures of it?

We have a similar situation around my area. There's 3 rooms holding tournaments on Friday nights with little or nothing going on the other days of the week. 15 years ago, the rooms all had tourny's on different nights and the players traveled around. All the rooms advertised each others places and tournaments. I think that all the owners would be better served if they would concentrate on creating more players and not so much on competition with the other rooms. I could go on forever with this subject.

I'd say, don't give up. Keep on doing what you can do. If you take care of your equipment and your customers, you should be all right. Try and find your spot in the market and make it the best that you can. Good Luck

What is the name of your bar? I think you mentioned it was in West Allis in another post, is this correct?

I would think that if you had Diamonds and you added money to the pot, you would have no problem getting the players you need.

Are your tournaments rated? Meaning players of different caliber race to different amount of games?

milwaukeepeach said:

Thanks Cowboy! I just want to create something special that shows my passion for the game.

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Diversity....

Although it is admirable to go after a select crowd, you are going down a dangerous route. One particular crowd no matter what it is will have upswings and downswings in their choice of entertainment. Serious pool players will get into periods of going to Poker tournys instead of pool. Kids will go to movies over playing pool. Women will change from venue to venue depending on whats popular at the time. Keeping the tables in good shape and selling only merchandise that you would use yourself is a good start. Maybe part of your awards/ prizes for tournaments should be nights of free pool (on a slower night) for the top three finishers? Coupons for appetizers etc. Just giving away cash will not mean they spend it with YOU. Give them the choice of $50 cash or $75.00 house credit. Try new things.

About the house cues....

My experience is that no matter how nice of house cues you buy, they will warp due to people leaning them against the wall or other abuse. People (general public) do not appreciate things that are given to them. I have had $15.00 house cues and $75.00 house cues. People treat them equally bad. Renting a quality cue for $1.50 will keep the cues in better shape and encourage players to purchase their own cue over the long run.

EDIT: I just noticed you are in Wisconsin. I just had Jacoby cues make us new rental cues and they can laser engrave your name on them if you want. Just a suggestion. I think we are supposed to get them in this week. We are replacing the last batch which were made by Huebler.

Ideas

To begin with i MUST agree with Cue and Cusion. $1.00 - $2.00 Cue rental is the PERFECT way to A) Keep House Cues Maintained B) It gives you the flexability to be able to replace them every so often by the revenue created by rentals (keep good records of revenue collected from rentals so you can keep track of where you are and where you want to be) C) A modest rental fee will spur cue sales. Our cheapest cue is about $50 and rental of $1. Especially your regulars will appreciate "Well if you were to buy a cue it would pay for itself in X times you come out and play"

On the House cue subject I dont know what you use, and some people are completely against Fiberglass, BUT The 1 piece Eliminator Fiberglass house cues are VERY inexpensive, and will last you alot longer.

Now onto another thing you mentioned: Decor. The only decor your leagues, your tournament players, and your regular shooters will be worried about is the table. Now i'm not saying not to spruce the place up a bit, but dont throw good money at something that will not show for more dollars in the end. Flooring may be the only place you really want to spend more. Your customers wont notice it as much but get a good low nap carpet with a good coushin*sp* beneath it, and it will take alot of stress off of players feet and lower backs. They play longer and more revenue for your business.